Construction unemployment sits at 3.5% with every state below 10%

Associated Builders and Contractors published its state-by-state analysis of September construction unemployment on 30 October. The national rate for the industry, which ABC reports without seasonal adjustment, was 3.5%, down 0.3 from a year earlier. Every state came in below 10%, and all but three were below 6%.

Where it is tightest

Maryland had the lowest construction unemployment rate in the country at 1.7%, the lowest September reading it has ever recorded. North Carolina was next at 1.8%, its second-lowest September figure after 1.6% in 2019. Georgia and Tennessee tied on 2.1%, and South Carolina and Utah tied on 2.2%.

At the other end of the table were North Dakota (9.5%), Alaska (7.5%), Minnesota (6.7%), Michigan (5.8%) and Massachusetts (5.5%).

The month and the decade

The national rate rose 0.4 from August, and 44 states saw their rate go up over the month, with four falling and two (Maryland and Oregon) unchanged. Because the data is not seasonally adjusted, month-on-month moves are best read with care; the year-on-year and pre-pandemic comparisons say more.

On that longer view, 39 states had construction unemployment below their February 2020 level. Seasonally adjusted payroll employment in the industry reached 8.4 million, which ABC puts at 9.9% above the pre-pandemic peak of 7.6 million. Unadjusted payrolls were 103,000 higher than in September 2025.

What is pulling workers in

The analysis was carried out for ABC by Bernard Markstein, president and chief economist of Markstein Advisors. He pointed to rising energy, materials and labour costs, and singled out one source of demand in particular.

"Data center construction is also absorbing a significant share of available skilled labor and contributing to elevated building materials prices." Bernard Markstein, president and chief economist, Markstein Advisors

That chimes with the Associated General Contractors' metro-level analysis two days earlier, which tied the strongest local job gains to data centre, power and factory work. Consultancy EFCG's weekly briefing also flagged the ABC figures, noting the tight market could weigh on contractor availability, bid pricing and schedules.

The bigger picture

Low unemployment in a trade does not mean nobody is moving. It means most of the people you want are already working for someone else. With employment well above its pre-pandemic peak and the lowest rates clustered in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic, contractors and industrial employers in those states are competing for the same supervisors and skilled trades as the data centre builders.